Page 5 - Florida Sentinel 11-13-15 Edition

Editorials/Columns
FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN
(USPS 202-140)
2207 21st Avenue, Tampa Florida 33605 • (813) 248-1921 Published Every Tuesday and Friday By
FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHING Co., Member of National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)
S. KAY ANDREWS, PUBLISHER
C. BLYTHE ANDREWS III, PRESIDENT/CONTROLLER ALLISON WELLS-CLEBERT, CFO
GWEN HAYES, EDITOR
IRIS HOLTON, CITY EDITOR
BETTY DAWKINS, ADVERTISING DIRECTOR HAROLD ADAMS, CIRCULATION MANAGER TOYNETTA COBB, PRODUCTION MANAGER LAVORA EDWARDS, CLASSIFIED MANAGER
Subscriptions-$44.00-6 Months Both Editions: $87.00-Per Year Both Editions.
Opinions expressed on editorial pages of this newspaper by Columnists or Guest Writers, do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of The Florida Sentinel Bulletin or the Publisher.
A Voice Crying From The Grave
f you hear a voice crying out
from the distant and you don’t know where it is coming from, it is the voice of Tyshawn Stokes crying from the grave. Tyshawn, a nine-old-boy, did not die from being hit by a car, or a stray bullet, and not in a mass shooting. Instead the baby was lured into an alley by a gang and murdered.
A bunch of big, bad grown, cowards shot a nine-year-old baby once in the back and once in the head. The murder took place in the ‘Murder Capital of the World,’ Chicago. Again the voice you hear is probably the voice of young Stokes. Suppos- edly the killing was a revenge killing. A revenge killing for whom, not the youngster, all he wanted to do was play basket-
ball,
The word on the streets is
the baby’s father, a gangster himself, knows what gang killed his son, but he won’t talk. What kind of man is the daddy who kills his nine-year-old son and he won’t tell what he knows. He should have turned himself in to the gang and let them murder him because he isn’t fit to be a dad. What about the mama. What does she know?
Everybody has got to be treated as if they know some- thing. This case must be solved and the cold-blooded killers put to death. This must be done so that this child can rest in peace. Come on dad, speak up for your son.
You should hear the voice crying out to the coward mur-
derers to turn themselves in and face appropriate discipline. This will insure that they won’t be able to commit this gruesome deed again.
Tyshawn is crying to the people of Chicago to move to rid the city of all the killing that earned the city the name ‘Mur- der Capital of the World.’
The voice is crying out from the grave to the National Rifle Association commonly known as the NRA.
The NRA has complete con- trol of gun control laws in the United States. The NRA controls what kind of guns are on the streets and who has them. The NRA can have laws passed that would prevent a lot of people who don’t suppose to have guns from having them.
Finally, the voice is calling for parents to teach their chil- dren to stay away from strangers. Baby boy Stokes is a perfect example of this. Just think if this was your child cry- ing out to you from the grave, what would you do?
Until something happens, in the words of James Brown, “The Big Payback.”
POSTMASTER: Send Address Change To: Florida Sentinel Bulletin,
P.O. Box 3363 Tampa, FL 33601 Periodical Postage Paid At Tampa, FL
C. Blythe Andrews 1901-1977 (1945)
C. Blythe Andrews, Jr. 1930-2010 (1977)
Black Churches And Synagogues Beware
he killing of nine members of Emmanuel AME Church
in South Carolina was a traumatic warning to Black churches and Black Americans that we must watch as well as pray. Moreover, the FBI arrest of white supremacist suspects who were planning to bomb or shoot occupants of churches and Jewish synagogues in order to start a “race war” is the most recent reminder that Black churches should develop strategic plans to protect their property and members from attacks.
One of our writers mentioned that a police car is usually present at a South Tampa synagogue whenever there are events held there. Indeed, Black churches and Jewish syna- gogues have been under attack by arson, bombings, mass murder, and graffiti since Reconstruction. Hate is still rip- pling through America and has shown no sign of retreating.
In the 1990’s, there was a wave of Black church burnings in which 145 Black churches were burned between 1995 and 1996. Since 1822, there have been over 552 Black churches victimized. It is time for every Black church to develop and implement security plans designed to protect church prop- erties and members 24-7. Not to do so could very well lead to other tragedies, loss of life and an increase in the cost of property insurance.
However, in the background is a catastrophe that oc- curred in another country, at another time. It was called “Kristal Nacht” (“Night of Glass”), and it happened in pre- World War Two Germany when Nazis smashed the windows of countless synagogues. With that memory in mind, let us say on behalf of America’s Black churches and synagogues, “Never again.” This is not nor will it ever be a reincarnation of Nazi Germany.
Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind
omestic violence is ugly.
I believe that's the one thing that people from every walk of life can universally agree upon.
This is mainly because we all know that nothing good can ever happen when the strength be- hind a man's punch makes con- tact with the delicate features of a woman's face. The end result is usually complete devastation.
It falls in line with how we can picture what a car may look like after someone informs us that they saw one crushed by a fallen tree.
This is why I was little con- fused by the outrage that ensued this week after the bruised and battered images of Nicole Holder, the woman Dallas Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy was accused of attacking last year, were released to the public. Everyone familiar with the case knew that what Hardy did to his girlfriend in their apartment made Ray Rice's el- evator knockout of his wife seem like a love tap. So the anger cur- rently being displayed seems like a long delayed, insincere re- action.
In court documents, Hardy was alleged to have chocked his girlfriend, punched her through- out her body, slammed her into a bath tub, drug her across the floor of the apartment and thrown her onto a sofa filled with assault rifles. It was a con-
frontation so violent that the person who called 9-1-1 to re- port the incident pleaded with authorities to come as soon as possible because, as he put it, the guy was "beating the s--- out of this woman."
The only difference between what happened with Rice and his wife and Hardy and his girl- friend, besides the extent of the brutality, is that Rice's actions were recorded for the world to see while the extent of Hardy's aggression was left to our imag- ination. Now, in the wake of wit- nessing the aftermath of Hardy's handiwork in graphic detail, there's a growing outcry for the NFL to banish Hardy to the same unemployment office that Rice now considers home.
To me this is another classic example of people only being af- fected by the things that they see. As long as there isn't a vi- sual people seem either inca- pable or unwilling to grasp the acts of gross inhumanity.
It is the same rule often ap- plied to how we respond to other tragic occurrences as well. I mean everyone knows that chil- dren are starving in Africa. Yet it's only after we see the pictures of the kid with the swollen belly and the mouth full of flies that we suddenly get the urge to act.
In Hardy's case, the pic- tures of Holder's injuries are the flies that have attracted our attention.
The problem for those who want to, somehow, make Hardy pay for his actions is that the time has already passed. Maybe if they would have shown this kind of passion last year when the story first surfaced their movement could have gained some kind of traction. But, now that he's served his suspension and had his convic- tion reversed because the victim didn't bother showing up in court during his appeal process, it's really just a case of spilled milk.
Is Hardy a piece of crap for abusing a woman? Yes. Is the NFL being hypocritical for ex- ploiting a legal loophole and al- lowing Hardy to continue his career after blackballing Rice? Definitely. But, because no one showed any fortitude by making the NFL stand firmly on its anti- domestic abuse policy regard- less of the circumstances, the point is mute and any effort spent attempting to rectify what should have been done the first time around seems like a waste of precious time and energy.
When it's all said and done the bottom line is that we, as a society, are going to have to fi- nally decide whether we're going to have zero-tolerance for do- mestic abuse or continue to allow a grey area to be manipu- lated. We can't have it both ways, because having it both ways sends a message to young men everywhere that "beating the s---" out of women is only a bad thing some of the time.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bul- letin Publishing Company. Anyone wishing to contact Clarence Barr can email him at: realityonice@yahoo.com.
American History According To Carson
he recent FOX News Network Republican presidential
candidate debate promised a more passionate-compas- sionate three hours of presidential opine filled with excite- ment and breakaway comments. Like its CNBC predecessor, it fell short. But if we had to choose at least one out of the few eye-openers of the evening, no doubt it would have been can- didate Ben Carson’s rendition of American history where he left out one of the most important reasons for this country’s global economic ascendancy: Slavery.
Said the retired neurosurgeon, “[The United States of America] declared its independence in 1776 – in less than 100 years, it was the number one economic power in the world . . .and the reason was because we had an atmosphere that en- couraged entrepreneurial risk taking and capital invest- ment.”
Excuse us, Dr. Carson, but the reason why America was the number one economic power in the world had to do pri- marily with the reason why you’re standing on a stage as the only Black guy in the race: Slavery. Certainly, it would be a cheap shot to follow that one word statement by saying, “Dr. Carson, you should’ve known that.”
Certainly, somewhere between substandard schools and a medical degree from one of this nation’s best universities someone should have taught you about the ravages and real-
ities of slavery on American society . . .but perhaps, not. What’s worse is the fact that none of the three FOX-News interviewer-commentators picked up Carson’s gaff and threw it back at him.
Let’s face it: Just because a man is African American doesn’t necessarily mean he knows African American history. But if he’s running for the presidency of the United States, being knowledgeable about his own heritage certainly wouldn’t hurt.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2015 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5-A
T
I
D
T